NNedPro Courses 2009-2010

In 2009, the two-day workshops consisted of a combination of lectures and interactive practical sessions, which provided students with a comprehensive overview of current national nutritional policy and recommendations, as well as an understanding of how these can be applied and implemented in clinical practice.

The role of the doctor and broader multidisciplinary healthcare team in delivering nutritional care were explored and students were given the opportunity to apply knowledge on the nutritional needs of special populations in practical care planning sessions.

Although encompassing both under and over nutrition, a core component of the programme was around the prevention, identification and management of malnutrition. Students were given the opportunity to participate in practical sessions using validated nutritional screening tools, such as ‘MUST’ (Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool) and review the role of different management strategies.

NNedPro Courses 2010-2011

NNEdPro collaborates with the Nutrition Education Review Group (NERG) Department of Public Health & Primary Care, at the University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine.

In the academic year 2010-11, Cambridge University approached the NNEdPro Group to collaborate on a first round of clinical and public health nutrition teaching for 4th Year Cambridge medical students.

The teaching approach was based on that pioneered in NNEdPro phase one, when 98 medical students from 15 medical schools across England were taught these concepts during an intensive weekend course run in Cambridge. That material was compressed down into a half day of teaching. Students were tested on their nutrition knowledge using a before and after multiple-choice test, and written feedback from the participants was also obtained.

The teaching took place in the clinical school on the Addenbrookes hospital campus.

This began with keynote lectures from Susan Jebb, Jeremy Woodward and Sumantra Ray, before splitting into smaller groups after a break, to allow all the students to attend each of three participatory workshops shown below.

Rotational Workshops used by the Nutrition Education Research Group, at Cambridge University.

Activity	Subject matter	Teaching Leader and team
Group A	Protected mealtimes Managing under-nutrition in hospital Demo tables – ‘tasters’ + ‘tubes’	Sumantra Ray Carla Pearson / Mary Casserly Danielle Draper*
Group B	Nutritional screening vs assessment Managing over-nutrition in patients/populations Exercise using ‘MUST’ Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool.	Joan Gandy Ben Thompson Jean Redmond
Group C	Fluids, electrolytes and micronutrients Clinical case studies and quiz Practical demo – ‘fluid balance’	Minha Rajput-Ray Louise WhiteLegg* Virginia Tomatis**
* Observer ** Capacity building

Feedback / Evaluation

Mike van der Es – ‘NNEdPro’ Group Manager c/o BDA; David Johns – PhD Student, MRC HNR

Teaching Coordination

Jayshree Ramsurun – Public Health Teaching Co-ordinator, University of Cambridge

Teaching Director

Dr Steve Gillam, GP / Consultant in Public Health and Director of the UG Public Health Teaching, University of Cambridge

Teaching/Learning Objectives:

To highlight that nutrition forms an important part of a Doctor’s responsibilities
To provide an overview of clinical and public health nutrition issues relevant to medicine
To outline core principles and practical applications of ‘Food, Fluid and Nutritional Care’ in hospital especially;

Protected mealtimes
Nutritional screening vs assessment
Managing over- and under-nutrition
Fluids, electrolytes and micronutrients

To understand the difference between nutrition screening and assessment
To understand the role of different members of the multidisciplinary team

The overall impression of the teaching was that it was quite relevant and successful, and the medical degree management team have requested that it be included again next year.